USC looks to end tumultuous season on a high note

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“I'm starting to lose track of how many head coaches and position coaches I've had,” Kennard said.

For the record, the total is soon to be 10. Today, Kennard will play his 51st and final game in a USC uniform, when the Trojans face Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl. Clay Helton will be Kennard's fourth head coach and Ross Cumming, a former teammate, will be his sixth position coach.

That's the type of job turnover usually found only in ant colonies, and it's easy to develop empathy for a USC team that endured a massive amount of in-season turmoil. Only, the Trojans don't want anyone's pity.

“I don't regret a thing,” Kennard said recently. “It's been a great experience. There's nothing like being a Trojan. I just love my experience here. I'm going to be proud of this season.”

Proud of a season when one head coach got fired in late September and another quit in early December? Proud of losses to Notre Dame and UCLA, plus Washington State? Few would blame the Trojans for wanting the Las Vegas Bowl to come and go as quickly as possible.

Yet that doesn't seem to be the case. Where are the Trojans finding their drive, their willingness to fight?

“Ten wins, pride, Coach O,” senior tailback Silas Redd said. “We've got a lot of things to play for. Each other. We're not going into this game without any goals or without any motivation.”

USC has a chance at a 10-4 record, something that seemed implausible in late September when Coach Lane Kiffin was fired after the Trojans' 3-2 start and replaced by Ed Orgeron, known as “Coach O.”

Players still are lamenting the loss of Orgeron, who resigned Dec. 2 after USC selected Steve Sarkisian to be the permanent coach, even after Orgeron went 6-2 with an upset victory over then-No. 4 Stanford.

Emotions have tempered a bit in the past two weeks since Sarkisian's hiring, but players still openly talk about winning the game for Orgeron and for the remaining coaches, most of whom are expected to be let go next week. USC, in an odd way, is fighting for a guy that Athletic Director Pat Haden didn't want.

“These players have had a lot laid on their laps,” Haden said. “For young men who are 21, 22 years old, it's hard. They have showed a lot of character.”

No USC team in history had ever employed three head coaches in one season, so credit interim Coach Clay Helton for preventing a complete collapse during the past 10 days of bowl preparation.

With the exception of receivers coach Tee Martin, none of USC's remaining coaches (including Helton) has been assured of a spot on Sarkisian's new staff. Most will be let go. Yet somehow, Helton has managed to hold together a group of lame-duck coaches and emotionally wounded players.

Helton did it by being himself, and by showing confidence in himself. When players talked about wanting to win the bowl game as a tribute to Orgeron, Helton didn't stifle them. He encouraged them.

“Every time that this team has faced a little bit of trouble, a little bit of adversity, they have found a way to fight back every time,” Helton said. “I can't wait to see them at the bowl game.”

So that's why, even though they have every reason not to, the Trojans seem to be dialed in for the game.

After a recent practice, two women in Las Vegas showgirl outfits visited to help promote the bowl game. Eight USC players jogged over for a group photo, but most seemed more interested in post-practice dinner.

Standing approximately 25 yards away, soft-spoken Javorius Allen seemed almost annoyed by the visitors as he discussed the team's preparation for the bowl game.

“We're not going to Vegas to see the showgirls or whatever,” Allen said. “We're going to play a game.”

That won't be easy.

Fresno State has been ranked in the Top 25 since late September, and, if not for a late-November upset loss to San Jose State, the Bulldogs would be preparing to play in a BCS bowl.

Fresno State has the top passer in college football, senior quarterback Derek Carr, two 1,000-yard receivers and a scrappy mindset.

Most of the Bulldogs didn't get scholarship offers from USC, and Fresno State is a six-point underdog, so the Bulldogs are primed to prove a point to their neighbors to the south.

The Trojans, of course, won't flinch. It's tough to rattle a team that has already been shaken repeatedly.

“Going through this makes us stronger,” cornerback Josh Shaw said.

“Life isn't fair. Things don't go your way all the time, but how do you deal with it and bounce back up? This is a great lesson for all of us.”

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